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Plastic elastic

The Armed Forces National Club opened on Monday night its third annual National Exhibition for Plastic Arts. The 10-day display of paintings, sculptures, calligraphy and antiques is organised under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan...

minister of Presidential Affairs. The 221 artists from UAE and other GCC countries are both well established professionals as well as new talents looking to make it into the art world. Their works of art are mainly focused on UAE rulers, landscapes, Emirates' heritage and portraits.

According to Major General Mohammed Hilal Srour Al Kaabi, deputy chief of staff of UAE Armed Forces and chairman of the Armed Forces Officers Club, the exhibition is offering something new this year. 'From now on we are going to dedicate a special area to portray late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's life and work'.

Indeed, in one of the exhibition rooms are displayed historical photographs from the pre-oil, forming and developing years of UAE. Naturally, most of these images depict Shaikh Zayed either meeting various officials, working on a project, enjoying a desert trip or even taking a picture from an airplane, since photography was one of his hobbies.

These documentary prints are on display here courtesy of the Military Museum Department from the Ministry of Defence. Paintings, though, are the main focus of the exhibition. Among the well known artists whose works can be viewed at the Officers Club are Shaikha Fatima Al Qasimi, Mohamed Al Astad, Sayed Abdel Mageed, Nada Salim Al Amiri or Aziza Al Khatib.

Originally from Egypt, but now living and working in Abu Dhabi, Sayed Abdel Mageed, is displaying mainly portraits of Shaikh Zayed. 'For the past 15 years I'm working in the Presidential Palace here, so I used to know Shaikh Zayed. Since there is a special dedication to him this year, I wanted to bring my contribution', the artist told Khaleej Times. He added that, although all his works here are oil on canvas, he is also known for his sand and wood paintings. 'My sand and wood techniques are unique, not used by anyone else. I have even received an entry to the Guinness Book of World Records for my sand paintings', explained Mageed.

Among the young talents showcased at the exhibition are a group of students from UAE University. Both Azza Al Ahmed and Alia Al Shehhi are studying photography and they are displaying some of their best works.

'I've started taking pictures in my sister's clothing shop, for advertising purposes and ever since I wanted to learn photography', says Alia. Since she likes both landscape and portrait photography, she is exhibiting two prints – one is a tilted seascape of dhow boats, taken on a hot and cloudy day in Sharjah, while the other is a well composed and striking portrait of a young Emirati girl in traditional costume.

Azza's photograph is a colourful close up of jewellery. 'I too like landscapes, but I also like to take macro pictures', she explained, adding that she mostly prefers working in colour , although sometimes she finds black and white sufficient to express herself.

Although not really connected to plastic arts, but highly valuable and intriguing, is the antique displays, which take up another room of the exhibition. They all belong to Mohamed Yousef, chairman of Journalists Association and an avid collector of antiques.

'This one here is a wire recorder from the first generation ever made and this one next to it is the first phonograph, made by Thomas Edison', pointed Yousef towards a few of his objects. Although he is better known for the light bulb invention, the phonograph was Edison's first major invention back in 1877 and it played music recorded on tinfoil cylinders that had low sound quality and destroyed the track during replay so that one could listen to it only a few times.

Yousef also has an impressive collection of Arabic heritage objects, brought from Asia or East Africa . Most remarkable are two old books of the Holly Quran, one written on deer leather and measuring 1.20 meters by 0.50 meters and the other made entirely of bamboo, with the Quranic verses engraved by the wood burning method.

Among the admirers of all these works of art was Shaikh Sultan bin Hamdan Al Nahyan who inaugurated the National Exhibition of Plastic Arts.